Author Comments

5/22/11-NEW ENDING ADDED

THIS IS A SATIRE. Captain Ig'nant represents the unfortunate hold of negative stereotypes placed upon the black community. I am black, most of the voices are black, and if you pass this off as "racist" and do attempt to understand the message, you are not doing any favor for the issues. This is meant to make people laugh yes but also point out the flaws in the current image of black America.

This is my animation for my junior thesis at the University of the Arts. And yes I got an 'A', haha, thank you Elliot Cowan.

Whenever a black person even THINKS about acting rationally, or dares to rise above stereotypes, your friendly hood-ass Captain Ignant is there to save the day! From African Americans getting shot for ridiculous reasons, to suburbanite black kids trying to be hood, Captain Ignant is there to keep black people the way they were "supposed" to be: IG'NANT!

Animated in Toon Boom Animate 2
Composited/Special Effects in Adobe After Effects CS5
Most voices recorded with Blue Yeti Microphone

Reviews

Rated 2.5 / 5 stars2011-05-26 10:28:38

Blatant ripoff

Dude, your entire first scene, animation style, and sense of humor is obviously stolen from the "n***a moment" episode of The Boondocks, you just barely expanded upon the initial plot of the episode and slapped some stupid mascot on the whole idea, and to be honest, it was poorly done. The sound levels were all screwey (loud highs and low lows make for ear aches), the animation, as I said earlier, was just a ghetto version of the Boondocks, and the pace was fucked.

Just another example of the white man stealing the black man's culture then turning around and spitting on him. (I'm joking of course, but there's a bit of truth in that stupid little joke, people).

Rated 2 / 5 stars2011-05-24 11:54:19

Well aren't we creative?

The cartoon was okay, I personally don't feel like animating it in Toonboom did anything extra for it. The light effects really didn't add anything and the raster backgrounds were almost a step down from what I know you could have done in vector. Voice acting was good most of the time, but other than that I really don't see why you made this.

I've read the reviews, and I wouldn't be very original myself to say that the first scene was completely ripped from the Boondocks, and almost half the dialogue was directly ripped from the show too (complete with Charlie Murphy references/quote), but what actually made me laugh is how creative you were with how you copied the material. I love how you took designs from different characters on the show and shuffled them around so that the first scene wouldn't be so obvious. Your response to one of the guys who pointed out the plagiarism was "The Boondocks doesn't own n***a moments." You could have said that if it were just the second scene and nothing else (sans the "Kyaaaa bitch!"....erm I mean "Kyaaaaa motherfucker!" [super creative!]) Hell, even the chick in the last scene's design was taken from one of the extras on the Boondocks.

Look, I know you're just now trying to crawl fearfully from your safety blanket of Sonic/DBZ fan cartoons, but keep in mind that making original work means sucking for a second before you get to where you need to be. This wasn't an homage to the Boondocks, this was mostly just slick theft. When you're documenting things as specific as facial expressions and going through the trouble of changing quotes, that just looks incriminating. Keep trying if you care to impress somebody besides the typical audience who just laughs at what they've seen before. Even if it's bad, it's yours, and your excuses are terrible.

Your only strong argument is the Kyaaah bitch because even I and personal friends have said "reminds me of Charlie murphy".

As for my art style, I have not touched sonic/dbz seriously since 2006. If I had to make all my characters with super exaggerated with big heads and wacky bodies, there would be less of a connection. But since Boondocks uses anime-like proportions and I look toward shows like Avatar: Last Airbender, Young Justice, and even (gasp!) Boondocks for accurate anatomy in animation, comparisons will be made. I like drawing muscles, fore arms, pictorials, etc. and I refuse to change that because Boondocks did so.

I have no idea by what you mean by the chick being stolen from boondocks. I based that off a customer I once had.

When I storyboarded this, I said "I want to black guys to argue and almost escalate". The first camera angles I felt were boring, so I looked at the "n**ga moment" scene to see how professional use camera angles to exaggerate an argument since they were similar scenes. People with your type of criticism think I am constantly analyzing Boondocks and thnking "LOL I CAN USE THAT". I knew there would claims of comparisons, and even calls for plagiarism, but I honestly think that that if anyone makes a "black satire with relatively accurate anatomy", then it's a Boondocks rip off.

Rated 2 / 5 stars2011-05-19 14:06:07

Rated 1.5 / 5 stars2011-05-21 16:35:35

Even as satire

It doesn't really do it for me. On the one hand, I can see the point that's being made. On the other hand, while it shows some examples of negative black stereotypes it doesn't really challenge anything enough to make a particular point. Even in the beginning, while the two young men were about to walk away from a conflict they still were way too amped up. When reasonable people meet eyes in the street, they say hello, not go "What the (expletive) are you looking at?" So what's the satirical message? That without Captain Ig'nant that black people still really *are* a powder keg waiting to go off and it's just a coin toss as to whether or not they come to blows over something stupid? That's not a particularly positive counter-message.

Also, it would never be the white person saying about a black person, "He's not really black" because nevermind that a black person may forget that he can't even not be black, a white person will always remind a black person that no matter how hard they try they will never be white. It fails as satire in that way.

Now yes, the animation is fine and the voice acting isn't the worst I've ever heard, but this flash lives and dies on its ability to connect as satire and for me it just doesn't. The jokes are too easy and have been made in public by many many other people -- there's nothing groundbreaking here in the thematic content and in fact even if it's satire it's a shame that the creator felt the need to go there because that satire is played straight in many areas of fiction but that image still remains the majority of images shown, rather than the minority. Making an image of "coonery and buffoonery" (to quote Spike Lee) is still appealing to the lowest common denominator, the most familiar and comfortable image in the public mind.

I respect the point you were trying to make, I just don't think you did it very well. But clearly I'm in the minority so who cares what I think.

Your points are interesting and you have a fair opinion, but I disagree on some points.

The setup scene with the two young adults arguing over each other is an exaggeration, but based on events in the news when you hear a gun fight break out after an "altercation". For them to go at it is what people expect, two thugs start yelling at each other, and one will shoot them. But they do not. They come to realization that what they are doing is embarrassing behavior and they they should not continue the senseless arguing. My goal was this scene was to tell certain black people, or really any person, that it is stupid and unnecessary to break out in to a fight/shooting over an argument. "Captain Ignant" represents what is wrong with the current image of stereotypes, turning them from having a rational settlement in to gun-totting crime statistics. I do not believe most people see this as "black people are naturally angry", because that's taking their yelling too literally. I set it up to show "this is what you expect" and have them become rational to show "this is how it should be".

I absolutely disagree with your second paragraph because I have had white people tell me/joke about this. I also did this on purpose to show it's not just black-on-black issues, but that white people have a part to play as well.

It is unfortunate that the satire did not reach to you, clearly you have a well thought out opinion of this so I apologize if it did not connect to you. But none of these situations were cheap shots. I am tired of seeing black people on the 6 oclock news in mugshots, I am tired of black people having to talk a certain way for society to confirm that as "black", and I based the female character over a person who I know claimed that it was uppity for a black person to live outside the hood.

The point that challenges is this stuff is, that if you partake or agree with the actions Captain Ignant is influencing, you might as well be wearing a water melon on your shirt.

Rated 1.5 / 5 stars2011-05-27 17:04:44

The &amp;quot;N***a Moment&amp;quot; Superhero

If I was your professor, I wouldn't have given you an A, I would have accused you of plagiarism from the television series The Boondocks. Not only does this movie open with a reenactment of an opening scene from that show but much of the dialogue in this movie is lifted VERBATIM from the show! Even the performance is mimicked, I definitely heard more than one Colonel Stinkmeaner "nyicah"" in there. You ought to give Aaron McGruder a portion of any money you make off of this. Yeah, people might find this funny but that's because you lifted the ideas from good writers. It's very unoriginal and uninspired. I suggest applying your creative energy towards making something new next time.

I'm pretty sure Masters-equipped my animation professors would let me know if I was plagiarizing. The only thing "verbatim" about the skit is the n word. I don't blame you for thinking "two black dudes angry at each other over something small, shouting n***a a lot" is ripping that n***a moment scene, but that is a very stripped down comparison.

I won't deny my sense of humor is similar, it is quite a gross assumption that I am simply attempting to replicate the Boondocks.

I honestly think that people with similar accusations think "n***a moments" are just jokes the writers of the Boondocks made up. We are both drawing from the stupid shit that promotes violence or bad decisions in the black community.